Easter naturally stands alone and above all; it is "the feast" (ἡ ἑορτή), then follow sixteen other great feasts, twelve very special ones—Christmas, Epiphany, Candlemas, Lady Day, Palm Sunday, the Ascension, Whit Sunday, the Transfiguration, Falling Asleep of our Lady, her Birthday, Holy Rood (September 14th), and the Presentation; and four less special but still great days—the Circumcision, St. John the Baptist's birthday (the birth of the Forerunner, June 24th), and beheading (August 29th), and SS. Peter and Paul (June 29th). The middle feasts are those of certain chief Saints, the Apostles, the three holy Hierarchs (SS. Basil, Gregory Naz., and John Chrys., January 30th), SS. George (April 23rd), Constantine and Helen (May 21st), Elias the Prophet (July 20th), Cosmas and Damian (November 1st), Nicholas (December 6th), &c. All the other days are lesser feasts. They keep a number of our Saints—SS. Anastasius, holy martyr of Rome, Clement of Rome, Boniface, Leo Pope of Rome (Leo I), Benedict, Martin the Confessor Pope of Rome, Laurence, &c., as well as a great many Old Testament Saints—Moses, David, Job, and all the Prophets.[1] They name the Sundays after the subject of the Gospel read; thus our Septuagesima is the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, Sexagesima, Sunday of the Second Coming of Christ, &c.[2] The first Sunday of Lent is the feast of Orthodoxy, the memory of the restoration of the holy pictures after the second Council of Nicaea (787).[3] The Saturdays before Meatless Sunday (Sexagesima) and Whit Sunday are both All Souls' Days, and the Sunday after Whit Sunday (our Trinity) is All Saints.[4]
2. The Orthodox Service Books.
The books that contain the prayers and rubrics for their
- ↑ For the whole Calendar see Nilles, i. pp. 2-25, and the Dissertation pp. 32-34.
- ↑ They name the weeks from the following Sunday.
- ↑ Nilles, ii. pp. 101-121.
- ↑ Ibid. pp. 20-21, 424-430. November 1st is SS. Cosmas and Damian, the "holy moneyless (ἀνάργυροι) physicians," because they cured people and would take no fees. For the Orthodox Calendar see also Kattenbusch Confessionskunde, i. pp. 447, 456, das Kirchenjahr.
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